The firing of rubber bullets alone should condem these police to jail time, but nothing will come of this.

The people that were there have been saying this for months...guess it takes a report from officialdom before anyone will take this seriously.

A full-scale public inquiry is needed in light of the widespread and violent trampling of civil rights by police at last summer's $1-billion G20 summit in Toronto, a new report concludes.

The call for an inquiry is among recommendations in the report – by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and National Union of Public and General Employees – which is aimed at holding governments accountable and avoiding a recurrence.

“The many violations of civil liberties that occurred during the summit, such as illegal detentions and searches and excessive uses of force, cannot have simply been the actions of a few bad apples,” the report states.

“Rather, given the scope and severity of the violations of rights that occurred during the G20, it is difficult to view this situation as anything other than a failure of policy and training.”

The most contentious is probably a rezoning that would allow a new layer of housing in spaces now occupied by front yards.

“Front setback policies create a lot of space that is never used,” Adams says. “These allowances are really problematic.”

In his thesis, Adams starts with a typical subdivision from Richmond Hill. Houses are set well back from the sidewalk, even further from the street. It’s clear that the space in between could be put to many other uses. In his scheme, Adams imagines a row of small houses, maybe two storeys, that fill these spaces and form a high-density, mixed-use, streetscape.

Mr. Adams, go back to your Lego, this is more suited to your skill set.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Tocondo continues its drive to bulldoze the entire city and replace it with wall to wall condos.

In 50 years this city will be (more of) an architectural nightmare, with aging decaying broken glassed shadows of a former age dotting the landscape, to the horror of our grandchildren, who will curse our names and time.

The European-style King West neighbourhood west of Spadina, long considered to be a showcase of progressive planning, could soon go the way of Yorkville or West Queen West following an Ontario Municipal Board ruling this week that gives Freed Development the go-ahead to build two condo towers that will be almost 60 per cent higher than permitted under the official plan...

...Officials with Freed, which has developed several high-concept projects in the area, declined to comment directly.

Hard to comment when you're dancing around wildly in a victory induced frenzy.

Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said he wants some answers from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker about a statement the governor made about considering inserting troublemakers into the group of protesters at the Capitol.

Walker made the statement during a sham phone call in which the caller, posing as conservative billionaire businessman and Walker supporter David Koch, asked Walker if he had thought about the possibility of planting people in the crowd to cause trouble during peaceful protests at the state Capitol during the past two weeks.

The caller, online journalist Ian Murphy, posted audio of the call Wednesday on the website of the Buffalo Beast, a left-leaning New York newspaper.

In response to caller's question, Walker said: "You know, well the -- the only problem -- because we thought about that … My only fear would be is that, if there was a ruckus caused, is that would scare the public into thinking the governor's got to settle to avoid all these problems. Where I've said, 'We can handle this. This is Madison, full of the '60s liberals. Let 'em protest.'"

Yeeehaaaaa, next up, child labour laws and that pesky separation of church and state...

The Republicans there seem to have acted in a sleazy underhanded way. So, like normal...

Wisconsin Assembly early Friday passed a bill that would strip most public workers of their collective bargaining rights — the first significant action on the new Republican governor's plan.

The vote put an end to three straight days of debate, but the political standoff over the bill is far from over. The measure now goes to the Senate, where minority Democrats have been missing for a week, preventing a vote in that chamber.

Rick Santorum launched into a scathing attack on the left, charging during an appearance in South Carolina that the history of the Crusades has been corrupted by “the American left who hates Christendom.”

“The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical,” Santorum said in Spartanburg on Tuesday. “And that is what the perception is by the American left who hates Christendom.”

He added, “They hate Western civilization at the core. That's the problem.”

Who are these cold hearted bastards that banned it in the first place.

The fine for playing road hockey is $55.

Is it any wonder that no kids seemed to be on the street with their sticks and nets on Family Day Monday?

Such activities are against the law and in most neighbourhoods, it appears street hockey has become extinct!

They call it Bylaw 522-78. I call it the no-fun bylaw.

If only Toronto could be as successful eliminating drugs, gangs, shootings, traffic, break-ins and homelessness...

...But one city’s stupid rule can be another’s opportunity.

Not only is the town of Newmarket going to allow road hockey but it is going to allow the game to be played on the municipality’s main street. Newmarket is holding the 7th annual Friendly Neighbourhood Youth Road Hockey Challenge on March 19.

"Owners are buying entire buildings," says Paula Lesperance, community organizer of the Housing Committee. They then hunt all tenants by offering them money or expelling them. Finally, they renovate and sell to benefit the apartments as condominiums. "

Tremblay stood behind Reid, saying he acted “in good faith” to investigate an anonymous and verbal report of improper actions by Bergeron.

The mayor said he felt the right way to move ahead was to ask the Quebec Municipal Affairs Minister Laurent Lessard to look into all aspects of the issue and make recommendations for action by council. He said he expected that analysis to be made by June.

Tremblay agreed he found the surveillance of Bergeron’s emails “questionable,” but denied ever saying it was unacceptable.

Time Warner said late Thursday that Jack Griffin, the chairman and CEO of its Time Inc. magazine unit, is leaving after less than five months on the job.

"Although Jack is an extremely accomplished executive, I concluded that his leadership style and approach did not mesh with Time Inc. and Time Warner," Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said in a memo to Time Inc. employees.

Mr. Griffin declined to comment. Executives familiar with the situation said Mr. Griffin's strategy was on target but his management style had occasionally proven grating enough to become a distraction for some employees.

...a student got the green light to author an editorial, and have it published in the school's newspaper (The Messenger), that said same-sex relationships were not normal, and then quoted from a Leviticus translation that says men who lie with other men should get the death penalty.

So much for creating a learning environment where all students, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, can feel respected and safe. In Wichita East High School, you can just get on the Internet or open up a copy of The Messenger and be told that you're not normal, and that some people think it's moral to have you killed.

The article, "Homosexual Teens Alienated By Current Societal Trends," is still available online here. (Here's a PDF in case they take it down.) That's also somewhat of an ironic headline, given that the tenor and tone of the article itself does quite a job of alienating LGBT students.

Our Glorious Mayor seems to be surrounded by people with no control over what they say.

A jovial Mayor Rob Ford on Thursday rejected suggestions that his brother has become his personal mouthpiece, even after Councillor Doug Ford publicly advocated greater mayoral powers — a concept that drew derision from many of his council colleagues.

Rob Ford also disagreed with his brother’s proposal to bring Toronto more in line with the American strong mayor system by giving the Mayor a veto over council votes.

“I was always happy with the power I have. I don’t know, I think my brother might be spending too much time in Chicago,” Rob Ford chuckled. “To each his own.”

Under Toronto’s existing system, the Mayor and each councillor are provided with one equal vote. Mr. Ford could not explain why his brother would be lobbying to alter that, noting “that’s up to Doug. Talk to him.”

House Republicans on Thursday moved to block the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing new rules that prohibit broadband providers from interfering with Internet traffic on their networks.

With a 244-181 vote, Republican leaders succeeded in attaching an amendment to a sweeping spending bill that would bar the FCC from using government money to implement its new "network neutrality" regulations.

The rules prohibit phone and cable companies from favoring or discriminating against Internet content and services, including online calling services like Skype and Web video services like Netflix that could compete with their core operations. The FCC's three Democrats voted to adopt the regulations late last year over the opposition of the agency's two Republicans.

The rules are already facing court challenges from Verizon Communications Inc. and Metro PCS Communications Inc. Republicans in both chambers of Congress have introduced legislation to try to repeal the rules outright.

Wisconsin Democrats on Thursday fled the statehouse in an effort to prevent legislators from reaching a quorum and passing a bill put forth by Gov. Scott Walker (R), which would cripple the collective bargaining rights of public unions.

The move produced a frantic political drama, as state troopers were reportedly sent out to find the fleeing lawmakers and Walker hinted that the National Guard would be called in to fill the void left by protesting union workers.

The US Government has yet again shuttered several domain names this week. The Department of Justice and Homeland Security’s ICE office proudly announced that they had seized domains related to counterfeit goods and child pornography. What they failed to mention, however, is that one of the targeted domains belongs to a free DNS provider, and that 84,000 websites were wrongfully accused of links to child pornography crimes.

And here you thought the moronic utterances from so called leaders was confined to only Toronto?

Heavens no.

Ohio’s new governor stepped up his innovative piss-everybody-off approach to leadership Wednesday, just one day after 1,000 cops, firefighters, teachers, and other public workers showed up at the Statehouse in Columbus to protest a bill that would strip them of their collective bargaining rights.

In our latest episode: A video from January 21 has emerged in which Governor John Kasich is addressing state workers from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. At one point, your governor refers — twice — to a police officer who ticketed him as an “idiot.”

“I had this idiot pull me over,” he says, referring to a 2008 traffic stop for not yielding to an emergency vehicle. After saying the officer told him, “You must report to court. If you don’t report to court, we’re putting a warrant out for your arrest,” Kasich responds, “He’s an idiot. We just can’t act that way, and what people resent are people who are in government who don’t treat the client with respect.”

Kasich spokesperson Rob Nichols said the story was a meaningless “anecdote” that had no bearing on the collective bargaining debate. But it’s not likely to make the opposition any friendlier.

“Every officer is going to take offense to that,” Columbus Fraternal Order of Police president Jim Gilbert told Columbus’ NBC4. “It’s always going to be in the back of the minds of police officers from this point on.”

It would be amusing if not for the fact the man and those like him want to turn the clock back to 1890.

When will the public learn that giving conservatives power in any form is a really really bad idea.

If they had their way, the Ford brothers would be able to override the wishes of a council that didn’t vote the way they wanted.

Since he swept into office, Mayor Rob Ford and his older brother, councillor Doug Ford, have established a highly centralized administration that holds the reins of power tightly.

“I believe in a strong mayor system, like they have in the States. The mayor should have veto power ... so he has enough power to stop council,” Mr. Ford said. “The mayor should be the mayor. At the end of the day ... the mayor’s responsible for everything.”

Fuck you and the overstressed broken backed horse you rode in on. And besides, only you (and probably Robbie) think the babblings of the mayor's brother have any relevance.

That’s about the size of it. This is about much more than Bev Oda, Minister of International Cooperation. This is about whether this government can be held to basic norms of civilized democratic behaviour.

Or, for that matter, logic. There is, after all, nothing to be debated here. There isn’t any doubt that the minister initially claimed, or at least implied, that the decision to defund Kairos was made by CIDA officials. There isn’t any doubt that those same CIDA officials in fact recommended funding be continued. There isn’t any doubt that the document they signed recommending that she approve funding for Kairos was later altered, comically, by the handwritten addition of the word “not,” to suggest the opposite.

And there isn’t any doubt that Oda lied to Parliament about this addition: the only question is when..

Some 18,000 new condominium units were completed in the Greater Toronto Area last year, according to the market research firm Urbanation. Another 17,000 will pop up this year, and 20,000 will rise next year—meaning Toronto will have more condo units for sale than any other city on the continent. Despite sluggish employment in the province and the threat of rising interest rates, condo sales are hitting a near-record pace, up 20 per cent in 2010 from 2009.

Helps explain why Tocondo feels so trashed.

Developers have found in Tocondo the most gulable market in North America.

On Jan. 10, just before noon, more than 100 real estate brokers descended on the corner of The Esplanade and Scott Street. They queued on a snow-and-ice crusted red carpet, shrugging their shoulders against the stiff breeze, chatting in Cantonese, Mandarin, Farsi, Arabic, Korean and even, occasionally, English.

These brokers were so-called VIPs, and each held a specially numbered card sent out by the developer Cityzen (and its partners Fernbrook Homes and Castlepoint Realty Partners) to enter the Living Room Condo Store, a new, high-tech sales centre for Backstage condominiums. Backstage is a modern, D-shaped tower that will one day rise 36 storeys into the skyline atop an awkward 20,000 square-foot parcel of land, right where Yonge Street meets the GO train bridge.

Mike Beard, a Republican state representative from Minnesota, recently argued that coal mining should resume in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, in part because he believes God has created an earth that will provide unlimited natural resources.

"God is not capricious. He's given us a creation that is dynamically stable," Beard told MinnPost. "We are not going to run out of anything."

The man is not only an idiot, but a totally unfeeling one as well:

"How did Hiroshima and Nagasaki work out? We destroyed that, but here we are, 60 years later and they are tremendously effective and livable cities. Yes, it was pretty horrible. But, can we recover?" Beard asked. "Of course we can."

In a move that is raising plenty of eyebrows, Missouri state Senator Jane Cunningham has proposed a bill that would "modify" child labor laws, eliminating the prohibition on employment of children under 14. The proposal has sparked an outcry in the state but Cunningham defends the bill, saying that it's important to cultivate a work ethic in young people and emphasizing that kids are still prohibited from working in dangerous professions.

"It's kind of a common sense thing," she tells The Huffington Post. "Right now, it's so over the top with regulations -- what businesses have to do, schools have to do. Parents should be in charge, deciding on the work ethic of their children."

Cunningham says that children are still protected by law from working in "dangerous jobs, like coal mines, with animals, with blades or involving dangerous stunts." She says that her bill simply loosens an overly broad prohibition on child labor and would allow kids to work at movie theaters, to babysit or to cut lawns, blaming the hysteria on union "misinformation" and politics.

Here is the language in her bill (SB22):

This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.

The suburbanites that run our city government are going to decide what is art.

Lord help us all.

Cesar Palacio will ask fellow councillors to endorse a communiqué calling for clearer guidelines on what graffiti is unacceptable amid a crackdown prompted by Mayor Rob Ford’s pledge to clean up the city.

“The current legislative framework I think needs to be reviewed,” says Palacio. “We’re dealing with something that’s very subjective, a very sensitive issue and (it’s) difficult actually to determine what’s art or graffiti or vandalism.”

Palacio, who chairs council’s licensing and standards committee, has been tasked with following through on Ford’s promise. He has been working on a graffiti eradication policy since taking up the post.

Three west-end homeowners — two on Maria St. and one on Ryding Ave. — are fighting graffiti bylaw violation notices handed out by the city, arguing the paintings on their properties are murals, not graffiti. Etobicoke York Community Council was to rule on the matter Wednesday.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Condo developers and corporations run this city. They rest of you? Buy a condo or move the fuck away.

The crowd at St. Lawrence Hall – well-mannered preservationists gathered to receive a once-a-decade report on the city's heritage – had been fairly subdued until the last audience member rose to speak.

“This is a crisis!” began Paul Farelly, a local activist with a halo of white hair. His neighbourhood association at Church and Wellesley is currently watching yet another row of handsome old buildings be subsumed by a condo tower. The city's heritage protection department, he continued, is understaffed and backlogged, unable to keep up with the pressures of development.

“It's ridiculous. It's lip service. And you really need to make a bigger stink about it,” he said.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Get 'em while they're young. Betcha the Koran will be nowhere to be seen.

Critics say Dalton McGuinty, Ontario's self-proclaimed "education premier," should be willing to take a stand on handing out Bibles to students in public schools.

"I think it was Bill Davis who once said the provincial government doesn't have to have an opinion on everything," said McGuinty, a Liberal premier, in a rare quote of a former Conservative premier.

The Waterloo Region public school board is seeking a legal opinion on its policy of allowing Gideons International, an evangelical Christian group, to give Bibles to students in Grade 5 whose parents have signed a permission slip.

A 4000-year-old standing stone in Angus has fallen over due to severe winter weather.

The Carlinwell stone at Airlie, near Kirriemuir, toppled over as the snow, ice and frost from the long cold spell melted away.

The 7ft prehistoric unsculptured standing stone is situated on the crest of a knoll on a farm. Human remains were found underneath the scheduled monument at the end of the 18th century. It is one of a number of standing stones across the country.

Historic Scotland is now looking to carry out an investigative dig of the site, before reinstating the stone.

Other calls include: "You're not like me, let's make a law to confirm that" and "crime rates are down, let's build more jails".

Another example of why conservatives should never be in a position where caring and empathy are required. They are incapable of either.

After Ontario Coalition Against Poverty protesters stormed a meeting of city council’s budget committee Thursday morning, committee vice-chair Doug Ford told a confrontational protester to “get a job” — echoing comments his brother, Mayor Rob Ford, made to OCAP protesters during similar City Hall demonstrations in 2002 and 2005.

The radio station 680 News captured Doug Ford’s comment on tape. Asked about it during the budget committee’s lunch break, Ford said, “I didn’t say ‘Get a job,’ not at all. Show me on tape when I said that.” Told that reporters had listened to the tape, he did not respond; a security guard then escorted him out of the committee room.

When OCAP protesters stormed a council meeting in 2005, then-councillor Rob Ford said, “I’m working. Why don’t you get a job?”

These people use fear and violence, and they still maintain they're the good guys.

Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills has told how he had to flee armed police in Uganda after revealing to a senior politician that he was gay.

Being homosexual is illegal in Uganda and there are even efforts being made there to introduce the death penalty for it.

The 36-year-old was filming a show called The World's Worst Place to be Gay? (on BBC3, of course), when he confessed his sexual orientation to British-educated politician David Bahati - who Scott said "went mental".

He explained: "He was scary. He ordered us to cut the cameras then brought a security guard.

"We ran off and he rang one of our guys saying, 'Where are they staying? What are the registration plates? I want them arrested. They won't get far'."

Fortunately Scott's colleague lied about their location, and armed police arrived at the Sheraton - where they had been falsely told the team were staying.

The DJ continued: "I'd heard horror stories about people getting arrested and roughed up and who knows what. I was scared."

Thursday, February 10, 2011

It seems to be a site aimed at conservative Christians, of the pushy variety (help! help! I'm being repressed!), with such cheery sections such as:

Humanists and Muslims conspire against Canadian ChristiansIs a new wave of legal terror coming against U.S. Christian homeschoolers?Ugandan homosexual killed by sex partner, not by a “homophobe”If Bill C-389 passes, “transgenderism” will be taught in kindergarten

etc, etc

FYI, you're not fooling anyone. You are hate fulled conservaties using religion as a shield. Christianity is too difficult a concept for you, and you should consider moving on to something more suited to your skill set, such as basket weaving or American politics.

You have blindly charged into the Anonymous hive, a hive from which you’ve tried to steal honey. Did you think the bees would not defend it? Well here we are. You’ve angered the hive, and now you are being stung.

Opps

Aaron Barr, the COO of HBGary Federal, told the Financial Times this weekend that he used clues found online to discover the identities of key Anonymous members. Anonymous reacted to the story and Barr’s claims with a massive attack aimed at the security firm, leveraging local root exploits, shared passwords, and social engineering.

* how sleazy you ask? Behold their mindset: These are established professionals that have a liberal bent, but ultimately most of them if pushed will choose professional preservation over cause, such is the mentality of most business professionals.

Legalized discrimination. Some will do anything to return us all to the hate fulled world of the past.

And it seems, they have no idea how hateful and spiteful they appear to sane, reasonable adults*.

Only thing we can do from this distance is expose them for what they are.

It would be legal for an Iowa business owner who cites religious beliefs to refuse to provide jobs, housing, goods or services to people involved in a marriage that violates his or her religious convictions, according to a bill an Iowa House subcommittee will consider on Wednesday.

House Study Bill 50, called the Religious Conscience Protection Act, would allow a person, business or organization such as a charity or fraternal group to deny services without fear of facing a civil claim or lawsuit if they think doing so would validate or recognize same-sex relationships.

The same-sex exclusion is by itself constitutionally troubling, several legal scholars and civil rights activists said.

* with no clue as to their own illogic: This is a common sense bill and long past overdue. The idea that people have a "protected" status because of their behavior is absurd.

CNN International is reporting that George Bush canceled a trip to Switzerland after – and possibly because – a so-called human rights group filed with a Swiss court a request for the ex-president’s arrest...

...It’s hard to know how much of this story is true, and how much is fundraising bluster. But if even a small portion of the news is true, President Obama has a duty to speak up and to warn foreign governments that further indulgence of this kind of nonsense by their court systems will be viewed as an unfriendly act by the United States. It is one more reminder of why the concept of an International Criminal Court is such an invitation to mischief.

During a short inspection tour around the exhibition halls in the museum, Minister of State for Antiquities Zahi Hawass announced that the seventy objects broken during the foiled looting attempt will be back to their original condition within five days, following comprehensive restoration.

Restoration was also carried out on a statue depicting the boy-king Tutankhamun on a panther. He pointed out that procedures are now being taken to re-open all the archaeological sites around Egypt.

Seniors will have to access their medical services elsewhere once the commercial building beside the Shops at Don Mills is converted into lofts.

Many in the large population of seniors in the area consider the building, at 75 The Donway West, a one-stop medical shop that fulfills most of their medical needs—from a pharmacy, to a lab, to various doctors' offices—all in one location.

"[Seniors] are very upset. We had everything, so whoever was coming was doing everything, having their lunch, and going home. Now to go for everything they have to go all around," says May, a pharmacist in the building, who wouldn't give her last name.

A Tulare County man is dead after his leg was sliced during commotion caused when deputies raided a cockfight in the south county.

Jose Luis Ochoa, 35, sustained a severe cut to his calf the morning of Jan. 30 and was taken to Delano Regional Medical Center, where he died. Doctors were unable to control the bleeding and an autopsy conducted by the Kern County coroner revealed that Ochoa bled to death.

Authorities reported that the rooster had a knife connected to his leg, which cut Ochoa’s leg.

One would asume that one wouldn't not be able to detect any discernible difference after the removal of said organ, but one would be mistaken...

It was late afternoon when news broke of an incident at City Hall that led Mayor Rob Ford’s outgoing chief of staff, Nick Kouvalis, to ask security to escort the mayor’s long time staffer Andrew Pask out of the building.

Before the workday was up, Mr. Kouvalis and Councillor Doug Ford, the mayor’s brother, marched down to the Press Gallery to “clarify” what happened on Jan. 21, insisting there is no discord in the Mayor’s office, while simultaneously declaring that a new plan for subways is almost finalized.

Councillor Ford was visibly frustrated. “It’s no one’s business what happens here or in the Mayor’s office, or in that office building over there,” he told reporters in an impromptu scrum.

Fuck you your Worship, but it is our business.

You shoulda keep Nick around Rob, woulda kept you from saying epically stupid things. Oh wait, you said them while he was there as well.

The Huffington Post has become more tabloid like in recent times. This latest development does not bode well.

The Huffington site itself today is display of propaganda:

Arianna: The Huffington Post & AOL -- A Merger Of Visions

Whatever. A handful of people just got rich, that is what has really happened. More corporate consolidation.

Arianna dear, no one is buying your bullshit.

Online company AOL Inc. is buying the high-traffic website Huffington Post in a $315-million US deal.

The acquisition, which will put Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington in charge of all AOL content, brings AOL an additional 25 million unique visitors a day.

The deal "will create a next-generation American media company with global reach that combines content, community and social experiences for consumers," AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said in a statement announcing the deal early Monday.

A federal judge had barred the release of the video before a trial scheduled this summer, but then came the leak.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker, who'd supported the judge's decision keeping the video under wraps, told a news conference, “I resent any implication that we were trying to hide the tape. … We investigated. We turned that investigation over to the district attorney, we backed the district attorney, and we fired the officers."

Friday, February 04, 2011

I was going to let Mr Walsh off the hook, as he may not have been old enough to remember Reagan first hand....

Unfortunately for him, he is old enough...

As the nation prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth, the question arises: Why has Ronald Reagan retained a hold on the popular imagination? Polls of historians often rate him in the top tier of presidents, and everyday Americans tend to agree.

Conservatives have to paint Reagan this way, to cover up the embarrassment of electing a befuddled former actor. And Reagan does look good compared to the parade of buffoons the Republicans have offered since.

William Shatner’s musical career barely qualifies as a musical career, but that’s why we love it: At no point in history has one man completely obliterated so many great songs in such a forgiveable — nay, loveable — way.

So the news that Shatner is currently working on a metal (yes, METAL) album definitely qualifies as the most exciting news of 2011 thusfar. It all started when Shatner tweeted his appreciation for Ozzy Osbourne alum Zakk Wylde…

Examinations of around 10 Viking graves found in Rogaland, southwest Norway, revealed Stone Age items, such as weapons, amulets and tools. Olle Hemdorff of the Archaelogical Museum in Stavanger told newspaper Aftenposten that he believes the items were buried so that “they would protect and bring luck to the dead in the after-life.”

The latest revelations are linked to discoveries from Vikings who had travelled to Iceland, and who have been found carrying Stone Age items with them. Previously, such findings were not considered to be significant, but recent analysis links them to similar, earlier-overlooked evidence from several locations over the former Viking lands.

As well as being buried with the dead, as were some of their ships, Stone Age arrowheads and daggers were sometimes buried under Viking houses. Hemdorff suggests that “by including objects from their ancestors, the Vikings legitimized and gained ‘control’ over the past.”

Does it surprise you the children (aka Bill Blair, helping keep fascism alive in the 21st century. Ok ok, but he is one of the most arrogant public officials in North America) that run the Toronto police would keep these*. PR is not their strong point.

Question now is, wtf do they need them for...?

Several Toronto police board members arrived at Thursday’s meeting expecting to debate whether the force would be able to keep four sound cannons which were purchased in advance of the G20.

Instead, they learned the decision had already been made.

“I am completely befuddled,” veteran board member Judi Cohen said. “It was never my expectation that we would be sitting here as a board being told what would be purchased.”

Councillor Frances Nunziata, who is one of three new appointees to the board, added: “So it’s done?”

Thursday, February 03, 2011

I'd like to think that the cosy relationship between the CRTC and the internet providers in Canada is exposed for the incestuous dance that is it, so that even the Conservatives couldn't ignore it, but I feel there are other reasons...

The CRTC must reverse its decision that ends unlimited internet access plans offered by smaller internet providers or the federal government will intervene, Industry Minister Tony Clement says.

Asked by the CBC's Rosemary Barton through Twitter whether it's true that Clement would overturn that decision if the CRTC does not back down, the industry minister replied: "True. CRTC must go back to drawing board."

In a nutshell for our non Canadian readers, our communication regulatory government agency, always to be relied upon to take the business side over consumers, ruled it was AOK for internet providers to cap usage and charge for it.

Just a little message to Bell, Rogers and their ilk. You are despised.

The federal government will decide by March 1 whether to reject a CRTC decision on usage-based internet billing, after Prime Minister Stephen Harper requested a review.

Harper's communications director, Dimitri Soudas, confirmed the review Tuesday, saying the government was "very concerned" about the impact of the CRTC ruling on consumers.

Industry Minister Tony Clement said the government would decide by March 1 whether to accept the decision, send it back for review, or reject it.

"This is a very important issue for consumers, for small business, and for innovators," Clement said following a cabinet meeting in Ottawa.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

The debate over traditional marriage versus marriage equality took center stage on the House floor Monday night. More than 100 people signed up to speak at the public hearing, but only half got the chance.

Hundreds more packed the chambers to show their support for and against a bill to ban gay marriage. Supporters want the right to vote on amend the constitution to define marriage between one man and one woman.

"When will the people have the chance to be heard? To be sure, full disclosure, I support marriage as created by God," says Danny Carroll. He was the first person to address lawmakers.

Translation: I'm a bigot and want to vote my fellow citizen's rights away. And no, I don't think they are people in the same way as me, would I being trying to hurt them using the power of government otherwise, but technically I have to work within the laws. But they are not "equal" to me, so I demand the right to vote on their rights, as their superior it is only natural. Why can't we just beat them up like the old days? God damn it, I miss high school.